Posted by KaraS on September 11, 2004, at 22:09:29
In reply to Re: Trouble sleeping - please help, posted by King Vultan on September 11, 2004, at 21:08:33
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> > So how have you prevented tolerance to Halcion? Are you only taking it once or twice a week?
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> No, I take it every other night, alternating with either the Benadryl or Unisom.
How long have you been doing that for? When I had problems with Ativan, I took it for 2 or 3 weeks only a small amount at night to sleep. Then I went off of it for 3 weeks. Then I started it again for 3 weeks at night. Then I stopped it and I had some severe discontinuation effects. I couldn't understand it because I followed all of the precautions and didn't use it for more than 3 weeks at a time. My doctor said that my system "remembered" it so once those receptors are primed (for want of a better word), that can last a while. Some people are just highly sensitive I guess. If the same dosage is working for you and/or you don't start getting nauseous a couple of hours before you're due to take it, then I think you're safe. (The latter should have been my clue.) At any rate, I got back on doxepin and discontinued the Ativan very slowly and all was fine.
> > Can you tell me more about hydroxyzine and it's use for sleep?
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> It's a drug I had never heard of that my pdoc happened to mention on a recent visit. It appears to be a very anxiolytic antihistamine that is mainly used as a sedative. Apparently, it can also be used for sleep, too, and has antinausea properties. My book "Psychotropic Drugs" does not recommend it for routine use as a sedative, but they do recommend chloral hydrate, which strikes me as a little bit strange. I was actually thinking about inquiring about chloral hydrate myself, but it has been shown to cause cancer in mice. I don't know how much chloral hydrate was necessary to give the mice cancer, though, or the implications as far as people.I did some research on it myself. Does your book give a reason why it doesn't recommend that it be used on a regular basis?
Re: chloral hydrate, it's so hard to determine from those studies in mice. You just don't know what the dosage implications are for humans. Your book obviously doesn't get into that. Still, it would scare me off too.
> > Does the fact that I respond paradoxically to dopaminergics mean that I also have presynaptic hypersensitive dopamine autoreceptors or are there other possible explanations? (BTW, Provigil didn't make me sleepy or alert - just produced that leaden limbs feeling. I may not have tried enough to get more of a reaction though.)
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> It's quite possible this could be your problem, but it is only a theory, and there might be some other conceivable explanation.
But how does one distinguish that from too much MAO? Why do you think that the latter isn't your problem?
> > I should try the Unisom because it would be a cheap and easy fix but I'm so afraid to. The Benadryl was so awful. I was so exhausted and drugged feeling yet my heart was racing (as I said earlier). It's a horrible state to be in because you can't sleep yet you can't do anything else because you're so drugged feeling. Each minute was like an hour. Wish I could know the result without having to do the experiment.
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> > Kara
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> I remained kind of hung over from the two Unisom pills into the afternoon. I think I will go back to one pill next time. It does have a very similar structure to that of Benadryl, but so do the tricyclic antidepressants closely resemble each other also, and they can have very different properties.
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> ToddOne little atom can make all kinds of difference. I've seen that all over the boards here.
BTW, how are you doing on the Parnate so far?
Kara
poster:KaraS
thread:388936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040909/msgs/389880.html